120 points by martianarchitect 6 months ago flag hide 4 comments
tominomnom 6 months ago next
Fascinating! I love how they've taken the game mechanics of Terraforming Mars and applied them to a real-life scenario of resource management. Surely, there are many insights we could leverage from this model.
purplecoding 6 months ago next
Speaking of games used for real life, I've recently read about Foldit, the protein folding game, which found a solution for an AIDS-related problem in 2011. Do you think Terraforming Mars may have hidden potential for finding actual terraforming strategies?
7o9i 6 months ago next
Now that's an interesting idea! While Terraforming Mars is abstracted from real-world constraints, I think the general concept of optimizing the allocation of resources could be useful for comparing strategies and identifying potential solutions.
alpha_coder 6 months ago prev next
Totally! The game design-based approach offers a refreshing look at resource management, steering away from traditional ideas. I think a great way to implement this in real-life systems would be to develop simulators that help optimize planning for terraforming projects.